Solar Panel Guide Discussion

Cardew

SallyKing wrote: »

The load shedding devices idea sounds great, how would they be controlled? Internet connection maybe?

It is already in the USA.

In my place there I get a discount for allowing the major appliances to be switched off at the power companies discretion.

http://www.fpl.com/residential/energy_saving/programs/oncall.shtml

jimjames

KevinG wrote: »

True, but there is no way that differential could be sustained over 25 years otherwise it would become completely unaffordable. Prices as a whole would increase by a factor of 3.3 and energy prices by a factor of 33!

Exactly - for some reason the salesman couldn't/wouldn't understand that even when I explained that by his calculations electricity would account for 75% of your salary in 25 years time!

Doc_N

SallyKing wrote: »

I can, the war in Afghanistan cost £2.6Billion this this year. Thats my hard earned tax money going to fight a pointless war, killing people and they dont even have any oil or gas for us to take...

Just think if those resources had been funnelled into energy projects, we could have wave power up and running, or a new energy storage system, or a smart grid. And some young men would still be alive...

Cardew wrote: »

Wrong forum - suggest you go find a soapbox elsewhere.

Nonsense - it's as relevant as most of the other posts on these threads!

Dave_Fowler

Had an email from the company that installed my system asking me to recommend anyone I thought might want a PV system installed. They are offering me £50 per recommendation. They say they have a large stock of PV systems and can get them installed and registered before 12th December. Looks like they were not expecting the FITs rates to change before April and have come unstuck with the bringing forward the change to December. I guess they have a lot of surplus stock. Prices may well soon fall!

Dave F

zeupater

Dave_Fowler wrote: »

Had an email from the company that installed my system asking me to recommend anyone I thought might want a PV system installed. They are offering me £50 per recommendation. They say they have a large stock of PV systems and can get them installed and registered before 12th December. Looks like they were not expecting the FITs rates to change before April and have come unstuck with the bringing forward the change to December. I guess they have a lot of surplus stock. Prices may well soon fall!

Dave F

Is that £50 per recommendation whiich results in a enquiry, or £50 per recommendation which results in an installation ..... if it's the first I'd start talking to everyone I know and split the £50 with them

Panic measure ... they may just make a mistake ... it'd pull the payback date forward a little for you

Z

Dave_Fowler

zeupater wrote: »

Is that £50 per recommendation whiich results in a enquiry, or £50 per recommendation which results in an installation ..... if it's the first I'd start talking to everyone I know and split the £50 with them

Panic measure ... they may just make a mistake ... it'd pull the payback date forward a little for you

Z

It is per recommendation. I though about splitting the £50 too! It's £300 to me if they take up the purchase.

Dave F

-MRS_T-

KevinG wrote: »

This one is easy enough:

http://www.efficientenergysaving.co.uk/solar-irradiance-calculator.html

zeupater wrote: »

Hi

In it's most basic form ...

Click on this link ..... http://re.jrc.ec.europa.eu/pvgis/apps4/pvest.php
Type the nearest city/town/village to where you live in the box above the map
Click search
Type the size of array (eg '4' for a 4kWp system) in the box marked 'Installed peak PV power '
Type the orientation of your roof into the box marked 'Azimuth' ... (0 is South, 45 is S/W, -45 is S/E etc)
Click on 'Calculate'

The window which opens has a column 'Em' with entries by month ... this is your Estimated generation in kWh for each month. At the bottom of column Em it shows the annual estimated generation alongside where it says 'Total for year' ... assuming that you don't have any shade and you have a standard type roof this is all you will need to do to get an idea of what a system will produce.

HTH
Z

Thank you both for taking the time to explain it to me. This is exactly what I was looking for

John_Pierpoint

Dave_Fowler wrote: »

It is per recommendation. I though about splitting the £50 too! It's £300 to me if they take up the purchase.

Dave F

I very much doubt they can do it that quickly, but feel free to send me a PM.

There is a recommendations "Referrals" sub set of this forum.

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/forumdisplay.php?f=42

I seem to remember some nice people quoting me as their "friend" when the South African "Investec" bank was setting up its "High Five" account, to get their brand established in the UK.

kevinheb

I realise that it's a bit late in the day, but I do have an installation date set for the end of this month. I currently have a 3kWp 12xSharp +SB3000 system being installed by Tesco for £10.3k, I can't fit anymore than that on my roof. However, if I use Sanyo HIT panels I could squeeze a 4kWp 16xSanyo HIT +Fronius 3.6 for £16k. I am not sure whether to stick with the Sharps or pay the extra on the Sanyos.

Another issue is the fact that we have a bay window and a chimney stack and it will cause shading (Tesco predict a shading factor of 20-60%) more in the afternoon, would the choice of panels make a difference?

I would really appreciate people's views

Dave_Fowler

kevinheb wrote: »

I realise that it's a bit late in the day, but I do have an installation date set for the end of this month. I currently have a 3kW 12xSharp +SB3000 system being installed by Tesco for £10.3k, I can't fit anymore than that on my roof. However, if I use Sanyo HIT panels I could squeeze a 4kW 16xSanyo HIT +Fronius 3.6 for £16k. I am not sure whether to stick with the Sharps or pay the extra on the Sanyos.

Another issue is the fact that we have a bay window and a chimney stack and it will cause shading (Tesco predict a shading factor of 20-60%) more in the afternoon, would the choice of panels make a difference?

I would really appreciate people's views

A lot depends on how optimistic you are in getting the larger system registered in time. If either system can be delivered and installed in the same time scale you have to decide on whether paying 60% more for 30% more output is worth it.

The decision will also depend on how much you trust the government not to remove or reduce FITS payments during the calculated 'payback' period.

It's a pity about the shading as this will make a significant difference if it really does amount to a reduction of 60% in the early afternoon. If the panels can be arranged so that one string is not in the shade, a dual tracking inverter would be a better choice as the maximum effect of shading would then only be 50% even if one string of panels were in complete darkness.

Shading in the winter is not so significant as 60% of the very little sun you get in winter is not worth the worry, but 60% of your summer output is quite a lot. Will the chimney & bay window still cause the significant shading when the sun is high in the sky?

Dave F